In another Manchester family, whose name will be familiar to my
readers - that of the Gaskells, Fleeming was a frequent visitor.
To Mrs. Gaskell, he would often bring his new ideas, a process that
many of his later friends will understand and, in their own cases,
remember. With the girls, he had 'constant fierce wrangles,'
forcing them to reason out their thoughts and to explain their
prepossessions; and I hear from Miss Gaskell that they used to
wonder how he could throw all the ardour of his character into the
smallest matters, and to admire his unselfish devotion to his
parents. Of one of these wrangles, I have found a record most
characteristic of the man. Fleeming had been laying down his
doctrine that the end justifies the means, and that it is quite
right 'to boast of your six men-servants to a burglar or to steal a
knife to prevent a murder'; and the Miss Gaskells, with girlish
loyalty to what is current, had rejected the heresy with
indignation. From such passages-at-arms, many retire mortified and
ruffled; but Fleeming had no sooner left the house than he fell
into delighted admiration of the spirit of his adversaries.
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